Netaji not given due respect: Narayana Murthy

Kolkata: Infosys Technologies founder-chariman NR Narayana Murthy has expressed shock over the country's political leadership failing to pay due respect to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and said India would have become the second most powerful economy had the legendary freedom fighter been a part of post-Independence nation-building.

"I was shocked to learn that Delhi does not have a single major avenue named after Netaji. Please correct me if I am wrong. I hope our wonderful prime minister will correct this lacunae," Narayana Murthy said in Kolkata.

"We have not paid him due respect. It is time this is corrected," he said delivering the annual Netaji oration - "If only Netaji had participated in post-independence nation building" - on the leader's 114th birth anniversary.

The corporate patriarch said role models like Netaji can instil courage, confidence, discipline and inspire those in the upper echelons of society to wipe the tears of their suffering compatriots.

He said independent India would have benefited a lot in areas like economic progress, population control and adopting modern agricultural methods if Netaji had been a part of post-Independence leadership.

"I believe India would have been a powerful exporter much before China if only Netaji had a frontseat in our policy making along with (Jawaharlal) Nehru... India would have seized the opportunity the world offered and would have become the second most powerful economy in the world," Murthy said during the oration at the Netaji Research Bureau.

"Netaji was one of the most courageous leaders in India. Netaji was a real bold Indian leader who could have stood up to anyone... courage is one attribute which is more important in leadership than any other quality," he said.

He also said Netaji's presence would have made the country do a "much better job of population management".

"India would have embraced modern methods of scientific agriculture and made us food surplus year on year. India would have embraced industrialisation better and become more export oriented than relying on import substitution which has led to all kinds of problems," he said.

Narayana Murthy said Netaji would have been a wonderful ally of Nehru in starting a fast paced programme in controlling India's population. "He would have continued and perhaps would have accelerated our efforts to control population through fair and transparent method".

He said the country needed to lay stress on exports in rural manufacturing as China has done. "Such a policy does create good disposable income for rural folks which will then spawn jobs in the secondary and tertiary areas of our rural economy," he said.